Half -Baked Oldie Thoughts

Watching The Choir on TV reminded me of all the old traditional songs we used to sing at school. Singing lessons were a weekly event, with a daily song or hymn also sung at morning assembly.

I had assumed that these songs had been around forever, but it seems that many of them had been resurrected during the 1920's after the war, when there was a national singing movement, first started for educational purposes, then hijacked by the popular press, notably the Daily Express, to encourage singing of patriotic songs to encourage some kind of social bonding within a community damaged by war.

Most of the songs we sung bore no relation to our day-to-day lives, but the tunes were all pretty good in a straightforward kind of way, and apart from the senior school where we sung 'Where'er you walk' which was rather difficult,they were really easy to sing.
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Trying to remember some songs: 'The lass of Richmond Hill,' 'The Soldier boy', 'Dashing Away with the smoothing iron', 'Sweet Polly Oliver', 'David of the White Rock', 'I vow to thee my country', 'Jerusalem', 'Bobby Shaftoe' are just a few. There were of course at least fifty or more which we sang on a regular basis and got to know very well.

I am going to sound a real oldie saying this, but perhaps rather than just pandering to the X-factor generation's desperate attempts to attain individual fame, often regardless of any sign of talent, perhaps we should try and get more people together for some good old community singing, with old and new songs, which might well unite people in a positive way and encourage a positive communication, rather than the social isolation so often seen everywhere these days. Compulsory singing in all schools might be a very good start. And some of the better songs would not be forgotten so quickly.